Travelling can give you a personality boost
We all know that travelling presents us with the opportunity to expose ourselves to different cultures, expand our intellectual reserves, and escape who we are and what we do on day-to-day basis. But what does psychology have to say about it?
According to a study on extended travelling conducted byJulia Zimmermann and Franz Neyer for the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and quoted by Psychology Today, extended periods of travelling promote favourable, long-term personality changes. For instance, people who travelled for longer periods showed substantial improvements in emotional stability and a greater capacity for interpersonal relationships.
Travelling can help you find your life purpose
Maybe this is why so many success stories begin with a journey; a transformed personality often means a brand new perspective on life! Take the creators of the infamous Montezuma Chocolate brand. They were a couple of big-shot city lawyers that dropped everything and went travelling around South America for a year. And whilst camping on a coco plantation, they unlocked the secret of what it was that they really wanted to do in life. When they went home, they opened a small shop in Brighton and the rest is history.
You could say that travelling disturbs the ordinary order of things, stirs things up a bit, if you will, as if the etheric energy around you dusts itself off allowing new things to come in and old ones to rearrange.
So, it seems that a long time away can change your life dramatically. And before you’ve panicked about your career being left behind, and the relationships you’ve built withering over your long absence, think about slingshots, and how they work: sometimes you have to go backwards in order to go even further forward than you were before.
But if you’re not ready yet you can always begin with a short inspirational journey to an ancient town or a vibrant, passionate cosmopolitan city with quirky architecture – it can be life changing. Just don’t stand still, invite change, and invite unfamiliar cultures and experiences in your life. Make change happen! It only takes the adventurous urge to embark upon a journey!